"All politics is local", former House Speaker Tip O'Neill said. Backfence.com makes that a business. It localizes content to individual suburbs, small cities or towns. Units we actually live in. Backfence only has three communities, all around DC, on board but it just received funding to build out its reach. Locals writing comments about local events; shops, the school, the fishing, the potholes; I'd read that any day. Now. Add in Google maps. Or Craigslist. You've got a killer app emerging. It's every neighborhood across America. Terms we understand. Are interested in. It's Gossip. News. Ads!  Maps of Real Estate for sale. Local hairdressers. Car Shops. Next; reputation numbers a la eBay. Its new style town meeting place or coffee shop.

It's also a big jump into Web 2.0 Forrester Research says this is the digital future "The next step now is creating customized applications that can be paired with the content of our choice - yup, mash-ups".  That's the concept from music we've talked about a lot. Now its applicable in different industries.

All that information in different silos, companies, places? Now its coming together in one usable, searchable, viewable spot. Neighborhoods today. Perhaps commodities tomorrow. Or scrap metal. That's huge. There'll be winners. And big big losers.

In any case, politicians should take note. Information is power. That means a grassroots on the rise. The effects will be unpredictable.